Paradise wrestlers beat Pleasant Valley in dual meet

Paradise's Markham Odell (top) wrestles against Pleasant Valley's Cyland Leitner (bottom) during the 138-pound match at Paradise on Wednesday. The host Bobcats won the dual meet and Odell won his match with a first-round pin. (Jason Halley/Chico Enterprise-Record)

PARADISE — It appeared that the final dual meet of the year for the Paradise High varsity wrestling team would go down to the last couple weight classes.

The even start would quickly fade, however, and turn into a run-away for the Bobcats once the middleweight wrestlers hit the mat.

Led by sophomore Wyatt Wyckoff, who tops the Northern Section and is ranked 18th in the state's 132-pound division, the Bobcats won five consecutive middleweight matches to defeat Pleasant Valley in an Eastern Athletic League dual, 47-21 on Senior Night Wednesday night in Paradise.

"Wyatt is the spearhead of our team, the roar of our Bobcat (and) everything this team needs," Paradise senior Izzy Welch said.

Welch was no means a slouch against the Vikings, recording one of six pins for the Bobcats (12-7, 3-1 EAL) on PV's Jonathan Travis one minute, 23 seconds into the 197-pound match.

"This was my first match at 197s and I know I had to start it off right," Welch said. "Glad it started the way it did &amp the kickoff was great."

PV answered when Cody Young pinned Paradise's Cam Williams in the 222-pound weight class to tie the score at six. Two matches later, the Vikings put together two straight wins at the 115- and 122-pound divisions to trim their deficit to 15-12 heading into the middleweight portion of the dual.

That's when Paradise took off, starting with Dylan Hoskins' 15-0 tech fall on Tyler Duntsch in the 128-pound match. Wyckoff, Markham Odell, Tyler VanIderstine and James Longero followed with four straight pins to extend the lead to 44-12.

"We knew we were going to struggle in the middleweights," PV coach Darren Yartz said.

Part of Yartz and the Vikings' problem, he said, was the absence of a pair of premier wrestlers due to injury ? one of whom Michael Briscoe, a 108-pounder, is ranked fourth in the section, just below Logan Hoskins of Paradise.

Yartz hopes to be at full strength on Saturday, when PV will see Paradise, Chico, Oroville and Las Plumas one more time at the EAL championships hosted by LP this year.

"Hopefully they'll be back to make a little different story, he said.

For Paradise, its goal is a victory on Saturday to finish off a co-league championship with Chico High, whom it fell to at home earlier this year, 34-27.

"My four years wrestling this is our best chance to get Chico and hopefully continue our league streak," Welch said.

For more on this dual meet, including video highlights and post-game interviews, go to www.paradisepost.com and www.chicoer.com. Connect with Paradise Post Sports Editor Jeff Larson on Twitter @jtlarson.